Priyaaanka said:
Hi, i've always used a digital camera and took lots and lots of pictures of people, things, etc. So seeing this, my fiance bought me a Nikon D5000 with the basic VR lens that it comes with. I have been mainly using the automatic setting or some other scenes. I have no clue what M, P, S stand for on the camera's body. I would like to enhance my photography and use this camera to its best purpose. Please help and guide me. Furthermore, I thought that the lens would be able to zoom in but not so much unfortunately. Would you suggest I get the next lens up to get closer shots.

How and from where do i learn more?

thank you,

Priyaaanka

I find Flickr to be a great place to share and view other pictures, To get ideas to get help with your pictures. and if you get a Flickr account don't forget to join Nikon Rumors Forum

Anyway don't get to wound up in Camera Features. Just get out there and shoot, slowly you will understand what different settings can do

I bought the D5000 and was amazed by the complexity of these new DSLR's too. I bought a book from Amazon which translates the bare text of the manual into a logical progression of learning. The book is "Nikon D5000 - From Snapshots To Great Shots" by Jeff Revell. There are others too, but I can tell you that this book starts at the beginning so you will find it useful I'm sure.

ISO- this regulates on how sensitive your camera is to light. Let's just say that you want a picture to be taken at night, so you have to increase the ISO settings. Keep in mind that as you increase your camera's ISO, the quality of the picture will degrade as you increase it. You can remove some of the artifacts/noise through various software.

So in short, if you shot during the day, keep your ISO low, when shooting indoors or at night, you either keep it relatively high or you use a tripod.

WB- White Balance

Here you can adjust your white balance,meaning that the color cast/hue of your pictures. Try it out, take a couple of pictures but change the WB settings to see how the color cast of the pictures changes.

Aperture- "A"- this is how you adjust how much light is going to your camera's sensor. So the lower the number, the more light will come through your lens to the sensor, the bigger the number the less light will come in.

Shutter- "S"- With this you control how long your camera's sensor is exposed to the light. So if you set it high something like 1/1000, the shutter mechanism will only expose the sensor for a very short time. Now if you set it to lower numbers such as let say 1/8 the shutter will expose the sensor to light for longer period of time.

Keep in mind that when you have a shutter number set to low, you might get blurry pictures, if you subject is moving or you have jittery hands. Here's where the ISO setting comes in. If you set your ISO to a high number, it will adjust your camera's sensitivity to light to be more sensitive, thus capture more light. IF your ISO settings are higher, you can increase the number of your shutter so,the pictures won't come out as blurry.

In A mode- you set the aperture yourself, the shutter number/speed will be chosen by the camera.

In S mode- you set the shutter speed/number, the camera chooses the appropriate aperture.

In M mode- you set both the shutter and aperture yourself.

P- mode is like an automatic mode essentially. The camera has pre-programmed settings, and by moving your dial, you get to choose whether you want a faster shutter speed and it's aperture setting or vice versa.

I suggest that for now, you should stay in P mode. But experiment by choosing the setting you want from this mode.

**** You can set your ISO to Auto, the camera will choose what's the most appropriate ISO setting for the given situation.****

However, I would suggest you to changing it yourself. Believe me it's easier.

I'm going to second the suggestion of a book. The trick is the right book. The Nikon manual will answer your "what" & "how" questions but not the bigger "why" or "which" questions. It explains all the options without helping you decide between them--and that's where it can all seem overwhelming. Jonnyapple's guide is accurate and thorough and generously offered for free. If that is too much for you, try Jeff Revell's book on the D5000 (I don't want to give the full title or a link lest that be construed as a commercial plug; I have no connection other than being a satisfied buyer) The reason I like that book is that it spends more time on describing why you'd use a setting than going through every sub-menu. He also has a bunch of chapters covering different types of photography (portrait, landscape, sports) and the considerations particular to each. Lastly, he gives projects for you to work on that will improve your skill. When you get comfortable there, you will know what additional equipment you need. You will need a longer lens i'm pretty sure, but the lens won't turn you into a good photographer by itself.

We are all eager to give you a tip or two about photography but a tip or two would not help you much to understand photography and all possibility and creativity it has to offer.
If you are really interested in getting better I would suggest buying a book or two on photography and then practice and play with it.
In time you will learn for yourself what to do.

Johnny Apple, TY and no i'm not offended. I'm here to learn. And NikoD...thank you as well; i appreciate the input. I have always really used Auto only but i will switch to A and see how that works for me.

P stands for Program. It's basically like Auto but allows you to control some of the camera settings.

S stands for Shutter. You set how fast the shutter opens and closes.

A stands for Aperture. This lets you adjust the size of the lens opening (aperture) and that allows more or less light to enter the camera. The smaller the number(f2.8) the bigger the opening. The bigger the number (f16) the smaller the opening. Yes it's a bit confusing.

M stands for Manual. This allows you to set everything, shutter, aperture,etc. manually.

DSLRs are more complex and allow you to change more settings then with a small point & shoot or compact camera. I'd recommend you start practicing in A mode. but switch to full auto (green camera symbol) when you need "good" photos.

Hi, i've always used a digital camera and took lots and lots of pictures of people, things, etc. So seeing this, my fiance bought me a Nikon D5000 with the basic VR lens that it comes with. I have been mainly using the automatic setting or some other scenes. I have no clue what M, P, S stand for on the camera's body. I would like to enhance my photography and use this camera to its best purpose. Please help and guide me. Furthermore, I thought that the lens would be able to zoom in but not so much unfortunately. Would you suggest I get the next lens up to get closer shots.